That is so weird – the eye contact thing. Having listened to some of her speeches I couldn’t look her in the eyes wo busting out laughing- so ridiculous

In my experience, being abusive to subordinates is indicative of (1) general malevolence and / or (2) an emotional reaction to being of uncertain competence in your job.

I suspect Harris’ general intelligence is adequate, but she’s been for decades ensconced in positions that should be well-above her pay grade. One might also suspect that her emotional state over the years has been regulated by (1) having grown up in a small family where (2) the children were less able intellectually than were the parents and (3) where she was the less able of the two children.

Note also how truncated are their lives. The two sisters have one child between them, the issue of an adolescent tryst. Both of their marriages are childless and neither KH nor her brother-in-law have had care of a pre-adolescent youth. KH, of course, sank a certain proportion of her young adult years into servicing Willie Brown, so she’s not the most scrupulous woman to appear in public life.